Julie and Lee’s wedding at The Village Hotel in Bury

Keeping rolling through these August weddings, my next stop was this great day. Julie and Lee are long time family friends of my wife, so I was honoured to be asked to cover this special day.

My day started at Julie’s parent’s house (next door to my Mother-in-law’s!) with Julie and her sister/bridesmaid having their make-up done (by my wife!). Julie had a bit of a nightmare week in the run-up to the big day, feeling poorly and not getting much sleep. Thankfully on the day wedding preparations took over and the bridal party were kept busy with Page Boy Harvey’s shirt refusing to stay tucked in.

I left Julie and her bridesmaids to make their final preparations and headed over to The Village to meet Lee and his Groomsmen, as they greeted arriving guests. As Julie arrived, so did the notorious Manchester weather but this didn’t dampen the celebrations.

Julie couldn’t hide her emotions as she headed down the aisle but managed to get through her vows in what was a lovely ceremony. This couple know how to have a good time and by the time I left, the party was in full swing (which was disappointing for me as I had to depart to prepare for my following day’s work).



























Congratulations to Julie and Lee and thanks for letting me be part of your special day.

Natasha and David get Married at the Parish Church, Bury and the Bolholt, Bury

When I first met up with Natasha and David and they told me that they were getting married at Bury’s Parish church, I was buzzing! The church is a landmark in my home town and I’ve always wanted to shoot a wedding in there. The week before the wedding, I arranged to meet the Rector of the church to find out the do’s and don’ts during the ceremony. I was shocked and gutted to find out that the don’ts were taking photographs and the do’s were… well basically nothing. No amount of gentle persuasion (or pleading) helped sway him otherwise, the Rector has never allowed photos during a wedding service and that was that. Which, I think, is a massive shame as the church is truly a beautiful building and anyone getting married in there would be guaranteed beautiful photographs.

But this was not going to ruin this day, no sirree bob! I arrived at the bride's mother's to find what is probably the most excited bride I’ve ever seen. Natasha was bouncing and skipping between her mum's and best friend's (next door to each other) which had been converted into big beauty salons for the morning. I love covering preparations like this as there were so many people present and so much going on to capture. On from there I headed over to the church and found the groom and some of the guest getting pre-service ‘refreshments’ in the Sir Robert Peel pub across the road from the church. I nipped into the church and had a quick word with the Rector's assistant who reiterated the no photos rule but agreed I could take some shots of them signing the register and walking out together. Better than nothing at all I suppose!

Anyway, Natasha turned up a wee bit late (as is custom) and I stood quietly at the back. The service was great to watch in this awesome church and afterwards I headed back in with the bridesmaids and groomsmen to get some of the groupshots done in there (before being told off and cut short by said assistant, grrr haha!) Then off to the Bolholt for drinks, food and dancing! I’ve documented the Bolholt a few times and praised them well on this blog and they got it spot on again here. The reception was fantastic and finished for me at the first dance, where it all seemed to get a bit emotional, with the dancefloor filling with guests and seemingly everyone bursting into tears of joy! Great stuff, highlights below!

































Congratulations to you both on your fantastic wedding. Thanks for letting me capture and be a part of your amazing day.

Bride To Be, Bridal Wear, Prestwich, Manchester

I'm delighted to announce a new bridal wear shop is set to open in Prestwich, Manchester called Bride to Be. The Boutique, owned by the lovely Hannah Lois, is on Bury New Road in Prestwich village. It offers a large variety of wedding dresses and bridesmaids dresses to brides to be, who are looking for the perfect dress to wow the one they love on their big day. All the staff have a friendly and down to earth approach to allow a good browse whilst enjoying yourself; sipping on some fizz, or coffee & cupcakes in order to find the wedding dress of your dreams and to make sure you look amazing on your special day.

The Bride's collections include wedding gowns from Alfred Sung's Always and Signature Collections, Jasmine Couture and Jasmine Colllection, Jade Daniels, Mikaella by Paloma Blanca and a Plus Size range from Callista for beautiful brides with curves. There is also a fantastic range of bridesmaids dresses from Jasmine's B2 and Alfred Sung's Lela Rose Collection. There are a great range of sizes and styles to suit all tastes, and with a large price range for wedding dresses, the boutique caters for every budget too.

Bride to Be has flexible opening hours to suit everyone, opening 6 days a week. Appointments can be made from Tuesday - Sunday or you can call in anytime for a browse. The boutique opens on the 25th June and Hannah is holding an official launch event there on Saturday 2nd July 10am - 6pm. Prospective brides can visit the boutique and enjoy champagne, canapés, coffee & cupcakes, mini manicures, pedicures, acoustic music and much more!

Some of my own wedding photographs will be up on the walls in the boutique and you can look through one of my wedding albums too, which will be on display to be browsed through.

Visit www.bridetobebyhannahlois.co.uk for more information.

New Exciting Promo Stuff!

I attended a marketing workshop yesterday to try and get some new ideas for promoting my business. Right at the start of session, the lady running the workshop asked who had business cards. I was the only person to put my hand up. She asked me to show her my card and as I was getting my wallet out, I felt a shiver of embarrassment run through me. This was because I knew full well that I’d given my last business card to a close up magician I'd met in a Parcel Force collection office the previous day. Anyone who is friends with me on Facebook may have noticed that I've had a bit of a running battle with Parcel Force this week over their 'Express 1 day service' that I eventually received 3 days late after 3 phone calls, 2 visits to the depot and a strongly worded letter! Anyway this magician did a trick for me whilst we were waiting to be served and was quite good so I said I'd recommend him to my clients where necessary. He didnt have a business card on him so said he'd email me his details through, which he is yet to do.

Anyway, I’ve digressed into a babbling and ranting idiot now. Back to the marketing workshop. So I didn’t have a business card and felt quite ridiculous admitting this after just saying that I had one. The workshop leader gave me a mild dressing down and instructed me to never leave the house without them! I wanted to tell her that I was leaving to pick up a batch of business cards (at a 3rd attempt) immediately following the workshop. But I didn’t as this would have made me look like the a schoolboy (that I used to be) making excuses for not doing his homework.

Here they are anyway, I love them! I got 13 different photographs printed onto the front of the cards. It's like carrying a mini portfolio around in my pocket. I've simplified the contact details on the back going for a 'less is more' look. The print quality is superb and I couldn’t be happier with them. (Which is more than I can say for these poor quality iPhone photos of them.)


Pics!


Lots of pics!


Back of the cards


The postcard front


Postcard rear

The only problem I have now is that I really don't want to give them away!

Terri and Rik Get Married at The Bolholt, Bury

Last month I covered the wedding of Terri and Rik over at the Bolholt Hotel in Bury. I’ve worked this venue a few times now and have enjoyed every single event covered here. The venue seems tailor made for weddings and the highly professional coordinators work tirelessly to make sure everything on the day runs smoothly.

I started off at the madhouse that was the bride’s mothers to capture the preparations. Loads of people crammed into a terraced house, loads of noise, kids fighting, champagne flowing – ACE! Terri seemed cool as the proverbial cucumber as I followed her and the bridesmaids about whilst they sorted themselves out. I had to capture the bride making the final adjustments to her dress in the smallest space imaginable. All good fun.

I headed off to the venue around the same time as the bridesmaids and met up with Rik and the lads, struggling to find an open bar at the venue to sneak a cheeky pint in before the ceremony (unsuccessfully I might add). The venue was dressed up in spectacular fashion by Organza Occasions. The room truly was breathtaking. If you want to see anymore of their work check out www.organzaoccasions.co.uk

Anyway, I’ve known Rik for years from working together in the past, and he is generally a cool customer. But seemed to be bricking it a bit before the service (haha, sorry lad). Rik and the groomsmen pre-warned me about a trick that they were to play on Terri during the exchanging of the rings (switching his wedding ring for the one you’ll see below).

The trick was played and taken in great humour, setting up what was to be a great day. Weather was a bit windy, but the rain held off. We had a free reign of the entire venue as no other weddings were due to arrive until later on so took full advantage. Highlights below…

































The photos probably tell the story of the day better than I can, great venue, great people and a great laugh. Thanks to the pair of you for allowing me to be a part of your special day. As Rik said in his speech, PARTY ON DUDES!